She said “FOCUS . . . helps users jettison busywork and wasted time and devote themselves to their most valued pursuits.” She said she found she was spending one-third of her time on unimportant stuff. To fix that, she spent a half-hour in a planning session to identify her values, roles in life and associated goals – those things most important to her. She blocked out time in advance to pursue them and entered tasks day-by-day on her calendar, prioritizing them based on importance. › Continue reading

“I’m not sure why my company hired you, I’m really good at setting goals and I really don’t think I need any help.”

My client, Jeff was partially correct. He regularly set goals for himself and for his team. Unfortunately, he seldom achieved them – a characteristic that had led his company to suspect he was not be the leader they needed. Hiring me was a final attempt to help him.

As we continued our first planning session, I asked Jeff to share the goals he had set for the coming year. He withdrew a binder from his briefcase and opened it on the table in front of us.

“This binder contains all of our goals as a team, broken down into four major categories,” Jeff said proudly.

Over the next few minutes, Jeff reviewed the four categories, each of which contained at least five goals. Together, he had set over twenty separate goals for his team, all of which were classified as “high priority.”

When he finished, Jeff leaned back in his chair and said, “Now, do you still think I need help?” With real compassion, I said yes.

Yes, because I know there are 3 actions I knew that Jeff needed to do to reach his goals. › Continue reading